Waxy condensation product of alkylolamine, fatty acid, and polycarboxylic acid



Patented May 8, 1951 i UNITED STATES YIPATENT OFFICE 2,552,321

WAXY CONDENSATION PRODUCT AL- KYLOLAMINE, FATTY ACID, AND POLY- CARBOXYLIC ACID David W. Jayne, Jr., Old Greenwich, and Harold M. Day, Cos Cob, Conn., assignors to American Gyanamid Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Maine No Drawing. Application July 10, 1946, Serial No. 682,582

4 Claims. (Cl. 1260-4045) This invention relates to synthetic wax prod- (JO-NHQH, nets and more particularly, to synthetic waxes (C a) 1320900171135 21120 which are reaction products of an alkylolamine,

a higher fatty acid and a polycarboxylic acid. CO NHCH It is an object of the present invention to pre- 6 01120000111135 pare new chemical compound derived from al- 800 parts of dimethyl adipate (4.6 mols) v l s, tty a i s and polycarbcxylic a i s- 560 parts of monoethanolamine (9.2 mols) It is a further object of the present invention 2600 parts of stearic acid (9.2 mols) to p p r new ch mi al c p nds which have 10 arts of beta-naphthalene sulfonic acid properties similar to those of the naturally occur- 10 ring waxes and which may therefore be sub- A mixture of the dimethyl adipate and the stituted therefor. monoethanolamine is heated in a distilling vessel Another object of the present invention is to to 200 C. during which operation approximately prepare wax products which are hard, lustrous 300 parts of methanol are collected as distillate. and stable and which possess sharp melting The product, which is the ethanolamide of adipic points. acid, is transferred to an open vessel and the Still another object of the present invention stearic acid and napthalene sulfonic acid are is the preparation of products which may be added thereto. This mixture is heated to 200 C. used in wax and polish compositions as well as and maintained at 200-205 C. until evolution for the coating of citrus fruit, paper and textiles of steam has ceased.

and as old lubricants. When cooled the product is a. hard, light cream- Another object of the present invention is colored wax which melts at 89 C. on a standard the preparation of improved synthetic waxes. melting mini; I

These and other objects are attained by bringing about reaction between an alkylolamine, a Example 2 higher fatty acid and a polycarboxylic acid in 000cm OHZOH (JO-NECK such proportions that the reaction product therem 2 2) JHrO 20 L of is free of unreacted hydroxy, amino or car- (JOOCH3 HzNH, H, boxyl groups.

The invention will be described in greater detail in conjunction with the following specific 00*NHCH examples in which the proportions are given in m zOH 2O11HcC0OH parts by weight unless otherwise indicated. The examples are merely illustrative and'it i notintended that they should restrict the scope of the invention. OOTNHCH (C 2)! $HIOOOC11H35 211 0 Example 1 CO-NHCH: 0000B, 011,013 OO-NHCH2 moooonNu 0H,). 2 (C m 2011 +2OH30H 1000 parts of dimethyl sebacate (4.35 mols) 000011 CHZNH, (3 530 parts of monoethanolamine (8.7 mols) (lJHOH 2470 parts of stearic acid (8.7 mols) 10 parts of beta-naphthalene sulfonic acid. C(FNHCH Th d r E 1 1 r 11 d d e proce ure 0 xampe 1s 0 owe an (CHM (IJHOH 9 the product obtained is a hard, light cream col- CQ-NHCHz ored wax which melts at 94 C. on a standard omon melting point bar.

boxylic acids having from about 6 to about 14 carbon atoms and including adipic, pimelic, suberic, azelaic, sebacic, etc., may be used as 20.1mm ONHEH; Hoocmo oOt ocmooon HgOH CUH C ONHCHg l imo o o cmoO l3-C ocmc oocn 31 parts of monoethanolamine (0.5 mol) 142 parts of stearic acid (0.5 mol) 86 parts of bis(p-phenoxyacetic acid) dimethylmethane (0.25 mol) Trace of beta-naphthalene sulfonic acid The stearic acid and monoethanolarnine are heated to 200 C. until foaming ceases. The resulting melt is cooled to 100 C. and the bis (p-phenoxyacetic acid) dimethylmethane and beta-naphthalene sulfonic acid are then added. The temperature is held at 200 C. for two hours after which the reaction mixture is poured.

A hard waxy material melting at 67 C. on a standard melting point bar is obtained.

The present invention is in no sense limited to the specific wax-like compounds of the examples. Other alkylolamines such as diethanolamine, butanolamine, dibutanolamine, pentanolamine, dipentanolamine, hexanolamine, dihexanolamine, isobutanolamine, di-isobutanolamine, dodecanolamine, didodecanolamine, etc., may be substituted for the monoethanolamine of the examples as may branched chain isomers, homologues, and substitution products thereof including, monoalkyl monoalkylolamines such as monoethyl monoethanolamine, monoaryl monoal kylolamines such as N-phenyl monoethanolamine, and monoaralkyl monoalkylolamines such as N-benzyl monoetha-nolamine.

The fatty acid used in the preparation of the synthetic waxes of the present invention should contain at least six carbon atoms. There is theoretically no upper limit on the number of carbon atoms in the acid because the more carbon atoms it contains, the more wax-like are the properties of the acid itself. However, for practical purposes from the standpoint of commercial availability and economic feasibility, fatty acids having from six to twenty carbon atoms constitute the preferred embodiment of our invention. Fatty acids which may be used include n-capro-ic, n-he'ptoic, caprylic, n-nonylic, capric undecylic, etc., and branched chain isomers, homologues and substitution products thereof. Moreover, stearic, palmitic, oleic, linoleic, lauric, myristic, ricinoleic, montanic and melissic acids, wax fatty acids such as those obtained from weeswax and carnauba wax, naphthem'c acids, talloel acids, fatty acids obtained from oils such as corn oil, cottonseed oil, soy'abeanoil, etc., may also be used.

Suitable polybasic acids for use either as such or in the form of esters thereof, in the preparation of the products of the present invention, include saturated aliphatic dicarboxylic acids, aromatic dicarboxylic acids, and alicyclic dicarboxylic acids. Aromatic dicarboxylic acids such as phthalic acid or phthalic acid anhydride, isophthalic acid, terephthalic acid, mellitic acid, bis-(p-phenoxyacetic acid) dimethyl methane, methylene 'bis-(p-phenoxyacetic acid), etc., may beused in the preparation of the waxes of the present invention. Saturated aliphatic dicar CHENHC 0 0 11135 ZHzO may alicyclic dicarboxylic acids such as the dicarboxylic acids of cyclopropane, cyclobutane, eyclopentane, cyclohexane, etc. We prefer to use esters of these acids in the process of the present invention, and more particularly alkyl esters such as methyl, ethyl, isopro'pyl, amyl, hexyl, isobutyl, etc. Polycarboxylic acid and esters thereof such as citric acid, benzene tricarboxylic acids, benzene tetracarboxylic acids, etc., may also be used.

Relative proportions of amine, acid and polycarboxylic acid used to produce our new waxes will vary depending upon the constitutions of these various ingredients of the reaction mixture because there may be no unreacted active groups such as hydroxy, amino or carboxyl in the synthetic wax-like reaction products. In general, when two mols of primary alkylol amine HQYNHz where Y is an alkylene radical, are reacted with one mol of dicarboxylic acid X(COOH)2 where X is an aromatic, alicyclic or saturated aliphatic radical, or a diester thereof, to form an amide of the type X(CONHYOH)2, two mols of higher fatty acid RCOOH where R is a higher alkyl radical must then be supplied to acylate the free hydroxy groups of the amide and produce the final wax-like product X CONHYOCOR)2. If, in the formation of the dicarboxylic acid amide, one mol of primary alkylolamine and one mol of secondary alkylolamine are reacted with one mol of the dicarboxylic acid, three mols of fatty acid will be required to efiect complete neutralization of the hydroxy groups. Furthermore, if all secondary alkylolamine is used in the reaction mixture, four mols of fatty acid must be supplied.

Another type reaction may take place, and here again the products vary depending upon the proportions of reactants and the types of reaitants used. If two mols of an alkylolamine are reacted with two mols of a higher fatty acid and the resulting amide is reacted with one mol of dicarboxylic acid, a compound of the type X(COOYNHCOR)2 is formed. If a secondary alkylolamine is reacted with the higher fatty acid in a 1:1 molar proportion, the product may be combined with one mol of d-icarboxylic acid to produce a cyclic compound COOY NCOR ooor or two mols of the fatty acid amide may react with two mols of the dibasic acid to produce the cyclic compound oooY-N-ooR i rooo YOCO In general, then, we may say that for every mol of dicarboxylic acid utilized from about one to two mols of alkylolamine and from about one to four mols of fatty acid take part in the reaction.

The various products obtained as described above may be represented by one or the other of the following general formulae:

in which R and R1 are alkyl radicals having at least six carbon atoms, X is selected from the group consisting of saturated aliphatic radicals having from 4 to 12 carbon atoms, alicyclic radicals and aromatic radicals, Y is an alkylene radical, R2 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, -YO-COR and -YO-COR1, R3 and R4 are each a radical -NHCOR or taken together, form a radical selected from the group consisting of NCOR and The preferred embodiments of our invention fall within the scope of the above general formulae but the invention is not to be limited to compounds of those particular structures.

It is an advantage of the present invention that economical and satisfactory substitutes for natural waxes have been produced. Natural vegetable and animal waxes which consist chiefly of long chain esters such :as myristyl palmitate and cetyl palmitate are sometimes scarce, always quite expensive and, of course, possess definite unchanging specific properties. The duplication of the chemical structure of the natural waxes is not economically feasible because the reactants are not readily available from cheap raw materials. By means of the present invention we have succeeded in synthesizing from commercially available relatively cheap materials products which possess wax-like properties. These prod- C17Ha50 ONH CH ucts can be substituted for natural waxes in many applications, and often are found more desirable due to a certain amount of flexibility of predetermined specific characteristics and properties.

It is a further advantage of the present invention that the wax-like compounds prepared may be used as solutions in such solvents as carbon tetrachloride, alcohols, oils and the like or they may be emulsified and employed in that form.

Other synthetic and/or natural waxes may, of course, be used in admixture with the synthetic waxes of the present invention, just as mixtures a HzO C O CHgO-O-JEOO CHQO O O 1H:

of more than one of our synthetic waxes may be used.

Another advantage of the present invention resides in the fact that the Wax-like products may serve as intermediates in the preparation of other useful compounds. For example, they may be converted into wetting and emulsifying agents by the introduction of hydrophilic groups into the molecules. Without such introduction, however, the products are extremely hydrophobic due to the fact that there are no free, unreacted amino, hydroxy or carboxyl groups present.

We claim:

1. A hard, lustrous and stable synthetic wax having a sharp melting point which consists of a compound selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by the following general formulae:

o O-NHYO-C OR and COOYNHCOR 0 O NHCH2 CHzO C O C1111 3. A hard, lustrous and stable synthetic wax having a sharp melting point which consists of the compound represented by the following formula:

(JO-NHCH:

2)! (BH OC 00 7B 0 O-NHCHE 4. A hard, lustrous and stable synthetic wax having a sharp melting point which consists of the compound represented by the following formula:

C OHZNH C 0 017B DAVID W. JAYNE, JR. HAROLD M. DAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the fileof this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,225,189 Wayne Dec. 17, 1940 2,373,230 De Groote et al. Apr. 10, 1945 2379,413 Bradley July 3, 1945 

1. A HARD, LUSTROUS AND STABLE SYNTHETIC WAX HAVING A SHRAP MELTING POINT WHICH CONSISTS OF A COMPOUND SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF COMPOUNDS REPRESENTED BY THE FOLLOWING GENERAL FORMULAE: 